Local couple races into marriage

Jeffrey Campbell, his new bride, Brianna, and his dad, Scott Campbell, who married them.
/ Scott Campbell

Brianna Stanley was not a runaway bride, but she was a bride on the run last Sunday. She and fiancé Jeffrey Campbell raced together in the Carlsbad Tri-City Medical Center Half-Marathon (her first, his third). He wore a tuxedo T-shirt while she sported a garter and a white ball cap that said “Bride” and had a veil in the back.

Brianna crossed the finish line clutching a bouquet of white flowers thrust into her hands by her mother a short distance back. They had time to catch their breath as their minister (Jeffrey’s dad, Scott Campbell, of Ramona) finished the full marathon before conducting their vows.

“We didn’t want to do something traditional,” said Brianna, a San Diego State graduate who plans to attend med school. Jeffrey is in the Navy. The marathon was fitting because they met while jogging at Mission Trails Park. Brianna noted they probably won’t enter the Carlsbad event every year but are eyeing their sixth anniversary when Jan. 27 again falls on race day.

Channel 5 meteorologist Loren Nancarrow posted this photo of himself on his blog. He is in the hospital preparing for brain tumor surgery.

Channel 5 meteorologist Loren Nancarrow posted this photo of himself on his blog. He is in the hospital preparing for brain tumor surgery.

Hospital humor: Longtime local TV meteorologist Loren Nancarrow is weathering his own personal crisis, details of which he shared on his blog and via Facebook. After experiencing strange symptoms, including ringing in his ears, numbness in his hands and slurred speech, he underwent an MRI Sunday.

A plum-sized tumor was discovered that Loren quickly nicknamed the “Blob.” He’ll undergo surgery Thursday to remove it. After blogging that his “strength will come from humor – not worry,” he received a flurry of online sympathy and “tumor humor.”

He got comments such as: “It will be a successful blobectomy.” “Loren, is it inappropriate to say you look cute in a green hospital gown?” And: “If you wake up spouting Sarah Palin, you better check that they did not do a lobotomy!” Or, as Loren would put it, a “blobotomy.” Here’s wishing him the best of luck.

From the ashes: On Oct. 21, 2007, Kit and Karen Sickels lost about 3,000 avocado trees, 2000 olive trees, 800 oaks and 1,500 grape vines as wild fire scorched the Ramona countryside and the 110-acre Milagro Farm Vineyards they had started in 2001. Also gone was a home-sized designer tree house, the La Jolla couple’s second residence.

But they didn’t throw in the trowel. They’ve since expanded from two to 11 grape varietals and opened a tasting room. On Jan. 20, competing against big-name wineries in the 2013 Winemaker Challenge, the tiny winemaking operation won rosé and sauvignon blanc best of show and best of class awards for its 2012 Rosé of Sangiovese and 2012 Sauvignon Blanc. Its 2010 Barbera won gold and its Meritage won silver.

Sickels says his secret, aside from hiring winemaker Jim Hart, is “staying out of the way of people who know what they’re doing.”